Parallel Lives

2010 | Fiction & Poetry

When psychotherapist Marjorie Nielson unexpectedly dies, she leaves behind not only the intimate details of her clients' lives, but also the mystery of her own life and death. Toby Browning chose not to engage with those around him but when this isolation was breached, he found himself at the mercy of his own body. It was this desperation that led him to the door of Marjorie Nielson. The reasons that brought Perdita Landberg there were different, but none the less debilitating. And Major Peter Harrington, too, carried his own ball and chain into the consulting rooms of Dr Nielson. Three parallel lives, destined never to meet. Her funeral brings together all three clients, united by the shock of realising how little they knew about the woman who shared their intimate secrets. In the quest to find out about his lost therapist, Toby Browning is forced to confront his own past and to discover the shocking truth about Marjorie Nielson. Along the way he is compelled to embrace, for the first time, the lives of others. What is it that Toby cannot face, that so disables Major Harrington and causes Perdita Landberg to doubt herself so much? And who, or what, killed Marjorie Nielson?

John Tagholm (Author)